captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: the devastated town of moore began the shift from search and rescue to recovery today. we get the latest from oklahoma governor mary fallin. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we're on the ground from moore, where families are taking stock of what's left of their homes and their lives. >> there is nothing that can describe the sound of your house exploding with you in it. >> woodruff: then, with one i.r.s. official pleading the

fifth before a congressional committee today. we take a deeper dive into the tax-exemption laws at the center of the controversy. >> ifill: we return to bangladesh with an inside look at the factory conditions now under scrutiny after last month's building collapse that killed more than a thousand people. >> woodruff: the senate moved one step closer to a comprehensive immigration bill. we kick off a series of conversations about issues at the heart of the legislative debate. >> ifill: and jeffrey brown has the story of the houston grand opera's efforts to reach out to new audiences and engage with the community >> people want to see their story being played in the opera. the want to say, "oh, i can relate to that. that's what i went through." >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪

moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: the numbers piled up today in moore, oklahoma, two days after the town was ravaged by a tornado. as authorities totaled the financial costs, residents coped

with devastating loss, tallying the damages close to home. the first official estimates came this morning: 12,000 to 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed across a disaster zone that stretches for more than 17 miles. and an insurance bill that could top $2 billion. the secretary of homeland security-- janet napolitano-- flew in from washington to pledge full support from fema, the agency that oversees disaster aid. >> we will be here to stay. at some point the cameras will leave, the national ones will leave first, then the local ones, but on behalf of president obama and on behalf of fema we will be here to stay until this recovery is complete. >> ifill: by this morning, more than a thousand storm victims had registered with fema. local officials are estimating that as many as 33,000 residents were affected, in one way or

another. >> i'm just grateful that we weren't here. you know, my wife's with me, so that's all i could ask for. >> ifill: this afternoon more of them were allowed back to see what remained of the lives they knew before the storm. >> it's just hard to imagine that one day you walk out of your house and the next few minutes you come back and it looks like this. >> this is the first tornado i've been in, so that was something else. i don't want to do it again. >> will you rebuild here? >> no, i'll move somewhere else. >> ifill: some of those returning lived in the westmoor neighborhood. it lies between the two elementary schools that were ravaged by the tornado-- briarwood and plaza towers. now, ceilings and roofs are gone, replaced with a view of the sky, even where rooms are still standing, their contents are an unrecognizable mess. outside, trees that managed to keep their roots anchored, stand stripped clean of their bark.

those who used to live there salvaged whatever they could from the wreckage. >> i've gotten to where i just hate april and may because of the threat of storms. >> ifill: joan and clay ghrist weren't at home on monday, but they came back to pick through the remains of their home and to begin planning their future. >> we'll collect the insurance, pay off our note, rebuild something here, sell it and buy a house in san antonio. >> ifill: another westmoor couple-- jim and beverly brenner-- relived the terror of monday's giant twister. >> there is nothing that can describe the sound of your house exploding with you in it. >> ifill: when the tornado hit, the 81-year-old brenner took shelter in a closet with his wife. but he was sucked out by the vortex. >> i couldn't find my husband. i was yelling his name and he

final... finally he answered. >> ifill: the home was flattened. jim brenner ended up under the rooftop with only minor injuries. >> i was over in japan when they dropped the bomb on hiroshima, believe it or not, moore looks like hiroshima did. i can't even talk about it... it's all flat and open in every direction. i can't even talk about it. >> ifill: for now, the brenners are staying with a friend and receiving food, supplies and help from the oakcrest church of christ in oklahoma city. pastor ben glover organized a food and water drive for the area. >> after the first day, after the deer in the headlights, you see the reality set in. they realize this is the long haul, it's not a sprint, it's a

marathon. we help them with day one, two, three. these are the steps you need to take. >> ifill: not far away, moore's only hospital is in ruins, after taking a direct hit. the top floor was ripped right off the building. >> this was my truck, it's like my pride and joy. >> ifill: physical therapy assistant derek thayer spotted the shiny hub caps of his truck when he emerged from the wreckage of the medical center. he helped some of the patients get to safety. >> we just hunkered down and soon as it came over you just knew it just from the pressure change in the room and then it just became a little more chaotic due to the people could tell it was going over, doors were being ripped off the door jams and things and that's when it became very real. >> ifill: the state medical examiner today released the

names of some of the 24 killed. at least ten were children, and seven died when the twister struck the plaza towers school. the schools had no internal safe rooms, but oklahoma's director of emergency management says almost nothing could have withstood a direct hit from a tornado with winds over 200 miles-an-hour. >> this is the anomaly that flattens everything to the ground. so it's a bit remiss to say that... that tornado precautions were not taken or that facilities were not strong enough. can they always be stronger? absolutely. but i think everything was done that could be done at the time. >> ifill: now, as attention turns to reconstruction, there's new focus on building safety, including safe rooms in homes-- concrete blocks in the floor with a sliding door. moore mayor glenn lewis said today he plans to build one. >> if you ask most people out there, they're going to rebuild and they're probably going to get a storm shelter. >> ifill: in the meantime,

rescue crews were winding down their search of the wreckage. andhite house officials announced president obama plans to visit moore on sunday to survey the damage and meet with victims. >> woodruff: as of this afternoon, officials said six adults remain unaccounted for. for more about the recovery efforts in the area and questions arising from this disaster, i spoke with oklahoma governor mary fallin a short time ago. governor mary fallin, thank you for talking with us. tell us, how is the recovery going so far now after two days? >> the recovery is moving right along. we have begun some of the recovery process of cleaning up the debris itself, and when i came in early this morning, i could see a change, and the ground condition, from the standpoint that debris was pushed off the side of the road, was being piled up in different areas alongside the road itself. so we're making good progress. aise look over here to the side i see all kinds of utility trucks and construction trucks

here in this park lot. you see various workers around picking up debris, and even trucks that say "construction" on them. so we're making progress. we've also let the famies go back into their homes to pick up their personal belongings, and hopefully they'll be able to find some things they can save. >> woodruff: what would you say are the main needs this community has right now? >> lots of prayer right now upon the main needs are just having a way to get the different services they need. and we have fema here on the spot that's helping with disaster recovery and helping with finding shelter-- certainly temporary shelter, for all the homes that were lost. a lot of people lost their clothes and shoes and food, and so as i've gone to some of the shelters, there are lots of shoes and clothes laying out. there are people womaning in picking those up. people lost, like, their cell phones. they lost their cars, their purses, their billfolds whatever it might be. so just providing the necessary services so people can go about living their daily expliefs

hopefully some day get back to work. >> woodruff: you mentioned fema is there. of course president obama is going to be coming there on sunday for a service. is there something you'll be asking him for? >> he is going to come in. we're not sure what time he's coming in during the day and we do have a service andre working on the time right now so it depends on his schedule and what he would like to do. he did mention he would like to see where ground zero sper se, as far as where the disaster has occurred and the schools and some of the residential areas. i'm sure he might want to see some of the business areas. we appreciate him signing our emergency declaration so quickly, and glad he recognizes this is a major event in our nation. >> woodruff: governor, in retrospect, it should there have been more of a state or local requirement for safe shelter, especially in public buildings like the school and the hospitals? >> well, the one thing about our state, we actually started a rebate program many years ago after we had a tornado that came

through in 1999, in which we nishtd a rebate matching federal fema money that we would give grantsute to people who could apply for those and they had to make application for that to put in a shelter for their home or school or businesses and of course that is something we would encourage people to do. and i do know that since new structures have been built, whether it's homes or whether it's been schools, many of them have chosen to put shelters in. now, what happened here this past week is not something that happens every day in our state. it's usually about 1% of tornadoes that come through in any season would be an f-5 tornado. so most tornadoes are not of this degree, and there are certainly safety precautions that the school took, and it's terrible that we lost 24 people but it's also remarkable that we only lost 24 people with this kind of destruction. >> woodruff: but shouldn't public, especially public buildings like schools and hospitals, be required to have a safe shelter? >> well, that's something that we'll be discussing this year.

and certainly something that we'll want input from, from the community itself, from the legislature. it's-- it's also an issue that will require looking at the building code themselves and working with the local but we do think we need to have a discussion about that. >> woodruff: do you think it's a good idea? >> absolutely. i think it's a good idea that people should look at the possibility of putting in storm shelters. i won't go as far as saying we should mandate that, but i think we should make it as easyas possible to be able to do that. i was visiting with our emergency independent director and our fema representative from this region and fema told me they have spent $57 million over the last decade putting in storm shelters throughout oklahoma, both in individual homes and business and schools. that is a large sum of money. >> woodruff: and it does sound like a lot of that has been done but i'm just curious why you think it should not be mandated. >> well, it depend on if a

school district can afford it, frankly the school schools and school bs themselves have to pass bond tooshz build schools and there are individuals in this particular neighborhood that was hit is that may not be able to afford a $2,000, $3,000 increase in the construction of their home or putting in a shelter in their home. we certainly would encourage people to do that and we can look at ways, suchedz add our are bait program, to make it financially more able to be able to reach the goal of putting it in the homes, shelters into their homes. but, you know, i think that's going to be up to the individual, certainly upon their budget and certainly we have to take into consideration the state's budget. >> woodruff: what other lessons would you say, governor, come out of this experience? >> that information is key, that hitting the ground running very, very quickly is important to saving lives, and we did to that. the minute i saw the tornado on television striking this particular area and saw how large it was, i called our

adjunct general and told him we needed to be ready with our national guard to have search ansearch-and-rescue teams and ds to go through the debris to help locate any survivors that may be around. we coordinated with our highway patrol, public safety, certainly reached out to the communities and mayors and sheriffs and police departments and fire to do everything we could to have good collaboration. that's one of the things i've learned over the many years we've had disasters like this is that the local people, the state people, and the federal people all have to talk and work together or things just don't work well. >> woodruff: well, governor, we wish you the very best with all the recovery going forward. and, of course, our hearts and prayers are with those who were injured and those families who lost loved ones. thank you very much. >> we appreciate you, judy. thank you so much. >> ifill: online, residents of joplin, missouri, are remembering their own tornado tragedy, which happened two years ago today, and pitching in to help victims in oklahoma.

still to come on the "newshour": the tax laws behind the i.r.s. controversy; inside the garment factories of bangladesh; a new series on the issues at stake for immigration reform and the houston grand opera sings a different song. but first, with the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> for the first time the obama administration has acknowledged killing four american citizens in drone strikes since now 2009. attorney general eric holder informed congress today. holder said one of the four, radical muslim cleric al-awlaki, was directly targeted iniem nen 2011. the other three, including al-awlaki's teenaged son were not targeted. a man being questioned in the boston bombing investigation was shot and killed early today, at his home in orlando, florida. the f.b.i. said 27-year-old ibragim todashev was fired on when he lunged at an agent with

a knife, during a meeting in his home. two state troopers from massachusetts were also there. the bureau did not say why the man was being questioned. but former roommates said todashev knew tamerlan tsarnaev, the bombing suspect who died in a shootout with boston police last month. the u.s. and arab and european nations will step up support for the rebels in syria, if president bashar al assad rejects peace talks. secretary of state john kerry issued that warning today at a friends of syria meeting in jordan. he said assad's forces may have gained some ground lately, but that it is only temporary. >> in the end, i don't believe there is a... there's a, you know, military victory for assad that is going somehow justify the gains he has made in the last days. what i do think is that he will ultimately realize, as will those supporting him, that this situation is going to get more dangerous, more destructive, and much more damaging to the prospects of the region.

>> sreenivasan: meanwhile, the battle for the syrian border town of qusair moved into its fourth day. rebels fighting to hold the town appealed for reinforcements from across syria. there was more today on the c.i.a.'s involvement in explaining the attack on a u.s. post in benghazi, libya. "the washington post" reported that then-director david petraeus played a key role in drafting talking points on benghazi. petraeus wanted to include earlier warnings about possible attacks, and mention a group with al-qaeda links. the final version deleted those references, and republicans claimed a coverup-- a charge the white house denies. the school board in chicago is going ahead with a much-debated plan to close 50 public schools and programs. the plan was adopted today, with supporters citing falling enrollment, a growing budget deficit and poor school performance. opponents said the closings target too many minority neighborhoods and will force children to cross gang boundaries to get to a new

school. the new mayor of los angeles will be eric garcetti. the city councilman won 54% of the vote in yesterday's run-off with fellow democrat and city controller wendy greuel. they were the top two vote- getters in a march primary. garcetti claimed victory, vowing to keep his promises to clean up the city and boost the economy. >> on july 1, we will assume the responsibility of creating jobs, of balancing our city's budget, of keeping our city's streets safe and improving the quality of life for all angelenos. >> sreenivasan: garcetti will be the first jewish mayor of los angeles. he succeeds antonio villaraigosa, who served two terms. in economic news, federal reserve chair ben bernanke said today the central bank has no plans to end its stimulus program. the fed has kept long-term interest rates at record lows, and bernanke told a congressional hearing that the job market is still too weak to start pushing rates higher. >> a premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise

temporarily but would also carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further. moreover, renewed economic weakness would pose its own risks to financial stability. >> sreenivasan: bernanke's testimony initially boosted wall street, but stocks fell later, after reports that several policy makers do want to downsize the stimulus effort. in the end, the dow jones industrial average lost 80 points to close at 15,307. the nasdaq fell more than 38 points to close at 3,463. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: we turn to fireworks on capitol hill today during the continuing probe into how the i.r.s. scrutinized conservative groups asking for tax-exempt status. jeffrey brown has our story. >> i have not done anything wrong. i have not broken any laws. i have not violated any i.r.s. rules or regulations. and i have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.

>> brown: that dramatic defense came from lois lerner at the outset of the hearing. she oversees the i.r.s. department that processes tax- exempt applications. but having delivered her brief statement, lerner refused to answer any questions from the committee. >> because i'm asserting my right not to testify i know that some people will assume that i've done something wrong. i have not. one of the basic functions of the fifth amendment is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection i'm invoking today. >> brown: lerner's lawyer had notified the committee in advance that she would take the fifth, but south carolina republican trey gowdy was visibly agitated. >> you don't get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross examination. that's not the way it works. she waived her right to fifth amendment privilege by issuing an opening statement and she ought to stand here and answer our questions. >> brown: the chair of the oversight committee, california republican darrell issa, asked lerner to reconsider. >> is it possible that we could

narrow scope of questions and that there are some areas that you would be able to answer any questions on here today? >> i will not answer any questions or testify today. >> ms. lerner, would you be willing to answer questions specifically related to statements made under oath to this committee? >> i decline to answer that question for the reasons i've already given. >> brown: even before lerner spoke, committee democrat stephen lynch of massachusetts warned against refusing to testify. >> we know where that will lead. it will lead to a special prosecutor. it will lead to special counsel being appointed to get to the bottom of this. so i hope that's not the approach of the i.r.s. going forward, because there will be hell to pay if that's the route that we choose to go down. >> brown: ultimately, issa excused lerner, but said she might be recalled if the committee finds she did not properly invo her fifth amendment right.

with that, the focus shifted to former i.r.s. commissioner douglas shulman. he led the agency at the time that employees were singling out conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. shulman acknowledged yesterday that he learned of the practice a year ago, two months after he told congress there was absolutely no targeting. maryland democrat elijah cummings pressed today for an explanation. >> it seems to me if you say to the congress, absolutely not, absolutely no targeting, it seems to me that you would come back, even if it was a phone call or a letter, or something. common sense, i mean a reasonable person would expect you as the head of the i.r.s., communicating with congress, to come back and do that. you didn't feel that way though? >> i mean, i guess i would repeat, in march... ( crosstalk ) >> i don't want you to repeat.

i just-- i take it you disagree with what i just said? >> um... at the time i learned about this list i felt i was taking the appropriate actions and that my course was the proper one. and i still feel that way today. >> i'm sorry, that's simply not good enough. it's simply not good enough, mr. shulman. >> brown: even j. russell george-- the treasury inspector general who reported on the i.r.s. targeting-- came in for criticism. chairman issa argued george should have alerted congress of his findings sooner. george defended himself, saying he was following established procedures. >> to ensure fairness and to ensure that we are completely accurate with the information that we relay to congress, we will not report information until the i.r.s. has had an opportunity to take a look at it to ensure that we're not misstating the facts. >> mr. george, that is not the statute. that is not the statute.

this committee last august made it very clear that the statute as written does not give you the ability, or any i.g., to use us as a whipping boy when you want to, and in fact keep us in the dark until an investigation is completed. >> brown: the committee also heard from deputy treasury secretary neal wolin. he said what happened at the i.r.s. was inexcusable, but no one at treasury was involved. today's hearing came to an end after six hours, but there's is no end in sight to the three congressional investigations under way. more hearings are expected after the memorial day recess. even as these hearings unfold to find out exactly what happened at the i.r.s., there's continuing confusion about the tax laws and regulations at the heart of the matter: who qualifies for tax-exempt status?

how is that determined? and other questions we'll try to get at now with duke university law school professor richard schmalbeck. he's a former tax attorney and kim barker. she's a reporter with pro publica. at the history. so take us back. how did it come to be that groups can seek tax-exempt status in the first place? >> it's a very good question, and nobody is entirely sure even how social welfare nonprofits came about in the first place. all we know is that as parof the revenue act of 1913, congress created the idea of social welfare nonprofits. eventually, they were defined as being formed exclusively to promote social welfare, and then over the years, that was-- that "exclusively" was defined to mean that you should have a primar purpose as being a social welfare nonprofit. so there's this big debate over "exclusively" versus "primary."

in the 80s it came about that these groups started to interpret "primary" to mean they could actually spend money on politics and the i.r.s. has agreed with that. the real argument here is over whether they should have to disclose the donors for the money that they're spending on politics and on these political ads that are then reported to the f.e.c. >> stay withthisrichrd schmalbeck, about defining this line between social welfare and politics. help us understand more. >> i wish i could be-- >> brown: hold on-- >> more definitive. >> brown: let me ask our our other guest here. >> there are really three types of organizations that are involved in this dispute, and i think it would be helpful to explain a little bit the largest category of exempt organizations are actually 501-c-3 organizations, those are the ones that pursue educational, religious, or charitable

purposes and those are the ones that get the major tax benefits and the big tax benefit on the table here is whether donors can deduct their contributions. they can to educational and charity and religious but they can't to the other groups and there are two dozen other types of categories of groups. the trouble with the c-3, everybody would like that deduction, but they cannot engage in any substantial lobbying and they're not supposed to do any political campaigning at all. now, a lot of c-4 organizations actuly might qualify in terms of charitable purposes that they serve, put they want to do lobbying. that is part of their function as they see it, and they can do lobbying as a can c-4 organization in any amount. and as the other guest indicated, they are allowed to do some political participation in actual partisan campaigns as long as it's not their primary purpose. and the i.r.s. has traditionally

understood that to mean as long as it's less than half. >> brown: less than lf. kim barker, groups can define themselveses and proceed in their work? that's also part of what happens, right? >> absolutely. you don't even have to apply to the i.r.s. for recognition as a social welfare nonprofit to operate. you can in effect go out tomorrow, incorporate your own social welfare nonprofit, said sai it's like values for a better america, start raising money, spend some money on an election, and then you can fold up before your first tax return is even due. so in many ways, the i.r.s. can't ev match e seed of politics. and that's something i think that's gotten lost in this debate is why are we even talking about the i.r.s. monitoring the political spending of these groups when the f.e.c. is, theoretically, supposed to be the agency that's monitoring political spending? >> brown: well, richard schmalbeck, do you have an answer for that or is that just how the system has evolved?

why is the i.r.s. the one looking at it? >> well, it is part of the internal revenue code, so they are the enforcers in chief as to 501-c-3, 501-c-4s, but theyo have a joint jurisdiction with the federal election commission as to political campaign activities. >> announcer: let me stay with you on this question raised earlier about the confidentiality of 501-c-4s. what's the history behind that? that goes back to the 1950s, i understand. >> you know, the history is murky. i think it probably has to do with the fact that c-3s, the charitable-type of organization, has long wanted to protect its donor lists. a lot of donors like to make their gifts anonymously. they don't want to be approached by people just because they are known to be generous in their flp. so-- fill anthropee. c-3s have always been confidential. even political groups under 527

have been able to keep their donors confidential until 2000, and then congress changed that. and, really, there's probably not a strong argument that suggests that c-4 organizations and 527 political organizations ought to be treated differently on this nfidentialy issue. and if they were treatedly the same, then organizations would not particularly seek to be c-4s if they were going to do a lot of politics, and this issue would never even have come up. >> brown: come backer, another thing that has been talked about much in the last couple of weeks is noting that the groups involved in the current situation are often relatively small players and a lot of the much larger players on both the right and left did not fall into these categories or were not receiving the same sort of scrutiny. now, does anybody know why that is? >> we don't really know the full extent of what the inspector

general is doing in terms of an investigation into social welfares, nonprofits activity as monitored by the i.r.s. we know that they're taking a look at what the i.r.s. has done on other social welfare nonprofits involved in politics, but the full course of what the i.r.s. was doing, whether it was actually targeting other grouped abouts the tea party and patriot groups. we don't know. because the inspector general's report was very limited in looking at whether these allegations of tea party targeting was true. i think there are two points here that folks have been pointing tout me in the last couple of weeks. number one was what you mention, the fact that the i.r.s. was flagging these groups, like the tea party, that weren't doing much in the way of political spending at all. i mean, basically none at the federal level. and some at the state level. and that they-- at least according to this audit, they don't seem to be looking at all at the major players, such as crossroads g.p.s., which say social welfare nonprofit founded in part by karl rove, the g.o.p.

strategist, which spent more than $71 million on the elections last year without having to report its donors. >> brown: let me just ask richard schmalbeck very briefly are, there people looking at all this to kind of fix the system or clarify the system? >> well, there's quite a bit that could be done to fix or clarify the system, but a lot of problem is the appropriations for the i.r.s. have been actually declining in real terms in recent years even as their duties have increased so they don't have enough money to provide the right kind of guidance. they don't have enough money to provide the right kind of training. they don't have enough money to provide the right kind of staff. and they don't have the money to provide middle-management review that would result in more cins net processing of these applications. >> brown: we'll leave it there for now. richard schmalbeck, kim barker, thank you very much.

>> ifill: the collapse of a garment factory in bangladesh last month has raised questions about what responsibility international companies, including walmart and the gap in the u.s. and primark and premier in the u.k., have to victims and their families. laura kuenssberg of "independent television news" has that story. >> reporter: they came not in hope of finding their loved ones. they know they are gone under the factory's rubble. but they come in each day still in hope of help that companies who promised support will do as they said. but nearly a month on, nothing has come. her granddaughter kanchun mala was 15. under the law, too young to be working here at all. i asked if the western firms who bought the clothes she made had offered anything to help. 3,000 workers used to cram into what was this building.

but the labels in the dust showing who was here. companies like primark who vowed to help the families of the dead, their orphans and the injured. and premier clothing among others who said they would provide practical and financial help. the firms claimed they've started the process, but that's not what many here believe. >> ( translated ): still today, there is no compensation are getting the workers. >> reporter: "no compensation and not enough principles," a union leader told me. >> ( translated ): the multi- national and fashion retailer created this problem. low wages. low working conditions. then they can get the cheap prices always. >> reporter: but even she would not take this trade away. the garment business has grown at a frantic pace. providing jobs for more than four million people. bangladesh is a desperately poor country and can't afford for it to disappear. eight people who lived in this tiny alleyway were killed in the

collapse. two-year-old siam will be brought up by his grandparents now. his mother and father never came home from work the day the factory fell. they say they can't bear the sorrow, but have to survive in their home of just one room. they've heard compensation could be due, but no sign of anything yet. have you had any help from the western companies who promised to do so? >> ( translated ): no, nothing yet. >> reporter: whether compensation ever comes through, no manufacturer here would ever want to turn down western work. this factory makes as many as 4,000 pairs of jeans every day. six days a week. 52 weeks a year. and so many of us will have bought what's made here. often at bargain prices. we might want cheap clothes and this factory manager wants to protect his workers, but safety does not come for free. >> if i have more money than i

have the ability to spend a lot of things for my workers and make the factory condition good. >> reporter: so if buyers were prepared to pay more, you would be able to make your factory safer? >> definitely, i believe. >> reporter: but as new factories are rushed up to meet demand, it's plain that cost is key. people are being prosecuted for what happened here. it's hard therefore to draw a straight line between this disaster and our hunger for cheap clothes. but that pressure on price does lead some factory owners to cut corners. looking around, feeling the sense of loss here, you have to ask what that demand is really worth. we took our cameras secretly into what we were told were some of the worst sweat shops. they had good reason to cry to keep the conditions to

themselves. the deafeningerality of sewing machines, row after row, hundred and hundred of young workers, many appearing under 18, the legal age for work. there are more than 1,000 workers in this oning about. it's cramped, crowded, sweltering hot, and factory managers have told us they know conditions here are illegal. upon industry claims it's clamping down, but appalling sweat shots are an entirely open secret. even the president of the country's wealthy factory owners, himself the boss of 21,000 people, says as much. >> of course it's very true that they can break the rules. >> reporter: you admit some factory openers think they can break the rules. >> we are not policemen but we can say from our association or from the government as well, please don't break the rules. if you break the rules, this kind of incident will happen. >> reporter: this is an industry worth billions of dollars. there are factory owners making a lot of money and paying workers hardly anything.

>> the retailer, they are making the money. but the factory is is not that. >> reporter: only morsels of any money find their way here. this warren of slums is where garment workers live. after six days, often with 12 hours of work, this is where they spend what little rest they have. there is no running water. but rain drenches everything when it comes. children growing up in a maize of ramshackle corrugated iron. their homes are hardly buildings at all. this 12-year-old left her parents in the countryside to make a living but at the minimum ge, 25 pounds a month. you can seen cracks in the building where you work? she likes her job but is scared after the factory disaster. she saw cracks in the wall of her workplace but could never afford to leave. bangladesh has 5,000 factories stitching clothes. they are not all like this, but

how you can prevent the problems of the future if you ignore the desperate present? >> ifill: and now to the first in a series of conversations about a key issue making its way through congress. we're calling it "inside immigration reform." the senate judiciary committee took a big step last night toward providing a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the united states. >> the votes are 13 yeas, five nays. >> it passed. >> ifill: three republicans joined ten democrats to approve the measure and send it to the senate floor by early june. but before the vote, committee democrats were forced to back away from a provision that would have specifically included protection for same sex immigrant couples. for more on the tradeoffs that led to the committee vote, i'm joined by alan gomez, who covers the issue for "usa today."

so the-- this big boat came this-- vote came this close to not happening. >> ysenator leahy, chairman of the committee, introduced very briefly this amendment that would have extended those rights to same-sex couples. basically, if you're a u.s. citizen have a permanent partner overseas or somebody who is here and undocumented or on a temporary vis ayou would be allowed to petition for them, just as other couples can in this country. he introduced it. he allowed people to debate it. a lot of democrats on the commit committee supported it, said how much they wanted to do it. it was a very emotional hearing, a very-- in a hearing filled with so much detail and policy, it was a very emotional moment where they were able to express their support for this. but they all urged leahy to back off and not request a vote on the amendment. they worried it would sink the whole bill. >> ifill: because there were republicans who said i'll walk away from the whole deal if

that's part of the compromise at the end. >> exactly. this bill was-- >> ifill: who were they? >> it was written by the gang of eight, eight senators, bipartisan senators, but senator graham specifically is one of the members of that group who wrote the bill and sits on the committee and said yesterday he basically said if you pass this, this thing fawltz apart because this group falls apart. >> ifill: that was senator lindsey graham of south carolina? >> yes displiefl what was the reaction from the l.g.b.t. community pushing for this so hard and as you said emotionally to be included? >> this was a big, big blow. i don't think anybody in that community expects this to suddenly appear in the house of representatives. it's republican led, very conservative. they're aware of the fact they don't have much of a shot over there. at this point, all they got was to get this on the senate floor and that's a much more difficult thing to do. this was a democrat-led committee. they thought thaitd votes. they were lobbying very hard in this case, the democrats on the

committee, to hold firm and get it on to the bill. they didn't really bother trying to lobby the republican members of the committee, assuming they weren't going to swing them over on such a tough didn't work out under them. >> ifill: sausage making is sometimes the most fascinating and frustrating part of the legislative process. what else was included or excluded in the process as they were getting to this committee vote. >> it's really been-- they had five hearings and they heard over 200 amendments. and i could bore you for quite a bile whooil discussing what they got into, but some of the tngs they really addressed and are clear are going to continue to be issues are border security. conservatives, republicans, ray really want-- need for this bill to ensure it's going to finally secure the border and we're not going to get another wave of illegal immigrants coming into the country. what they were able to do is get some steps. they were able to-- the original bill required for 100% of the borders to be monitored by border patrol, and 90% of people

trying to cross over to be turned back. but the original bill only asked for that in three sectors. chuck grassley, senator from iowa, was able to extend it for the entire border. >> ifill: but there were also exwez who gets to come in, not only gays and lesbians, but also what kinds of workers get to come in. >> absolutely. what the bill does is expand the legal immigration system. part of the reason we have so many undocumented immigrants, the legal immigration system-- it's one thing everybody agrees on-- is broken. they're bringing in more computer engineers, more people who work in those fields. but it also creates a visa for low-skilled workers in the restaurant and retail industry and that's where we've seen a lot people come in. it proitdz these avenues hopefully to fet the workers that u.s. businesses need so that that magnet of jobs isn't thereto for them to try and come in the future. >> ifill: we just saw the video of the celebration that

went on but there are a lot of pressure points coming on the senate and house if all kinds of external places bhop are those people who are in there, who are lobbying, who are pressuring to get things in or out of th kind legislation. >> first of all, i don't know if senator leahy has had his name chanted like that in quite a dewitt bit after the hearing once it was passed. but there remain many points where this thing can fall apart. one example, orrin hatch, it was very important to get his vote and they worked out a compromise for high-skilled workers to come in, made it a little bit easier for u.s. businesses to hire those foreign workers but at the same time that really upset labor unions in the country. the afl-cio respond very angrily to the amendment. they still support the bill, and butt those are the kinds of things they'll be looking for in the weeks ahead. >> ifill: briefly, what was the white house's role in this. they were pushing for the gay

and lesbian portion. >> they were pushing very hard for the gay and lesbian amendment. there was an a.p. report that the white house asked leahy not to introduce it. the white house, jay carney today said he did not-- he's not aware of that conversation taking place. leahy's office says they don't talk about private discussions they have. and the white house is fighting back to that. but they-- you know, 'sade very clear that he supports the amendment as far as the politics of whether he got in there and asked for him to pull it back we're not sure. >> ifill: many steps to go. first the full senate and then the house. we'll be talking about this a lot. thank you very much, alan gomez, "usa today." we'll have more on the emerging legislation in coming days. and on our website, we take a look at a virtual march being launched online, in support of the immigration law. that's at newshour.pbs.org. >> woodruff: finally tonight: bringing opera to the community and the community into opera.

jeff is back with that story. ♪ >> brown: a tragic death scene, a lyrical duet and an epic tale of family and history-- the very stuff of grand opera. ♪ but this is "cruzar la cara de la luna"-- "to cross the face of the moon," composed in 2010 and billed as the first "mariachi opera." ♪ it's part of an experiment by one of the nation's leading opera companies, to reach new audiences, become a better neighbor in its community and, just maybe, help secure the future of an art form. >> i believe that the responsibility of an arts institution is to broaden our art and take it to as many people as want to seek it. we have an educational and embracing responsibility with

i think that's a bigger responsibility than filling the seats in the theater. >> brown: patrick summers, artistic director of the houston grand opera, is hardly giving up on the classics. on the day of our visit, he rehearsed singers preparing for a production of verdi's "il trovatore." and the company is mounting a new version of wagner's "ring" cycle in the next few years. but amid rapid demographic change-- as houston has become one of the most diverse big cities in the country, where minorities make up the majority of the population-- the company decided it had no choice but to re-think its role. >> we absorb each other's culture and what comes out is something very uniquely american. that's how i view houston. and that's very much how i view the role of the houston grand opera-- to reflect that youthful immigrant city.

>> brown: the effort began six years with a production called "the refuge", which told stories of refugees from around the world who've settled in houston. it was the brainchild of then general director anthony freud, who created h.g.o.-co.-- houston grand opera company community collaboration. ♪ more than a dozen works have followed. most recently, one called "memory stone" about members of houston's asian community after the 2011 tsunami in japan. all have been based on real people and experiences and are often performed in smaller neighborhood venues around the city. >> i want to know what you detected as themes. i want to know if some of those themes changed when you sat in an audience with your community. >> brown: sandra bernhard heads h.g.o.-co. and on this evening was not in the opera house but a

community center meeting with hispanic teens and local leaders. >> our job is to listen to the community. we show up, you listen, you show up again. you listen. you show up again. >> brown: and then who start doing something? and what do you do? >> what we do is tell the stories of those who call houston their home. and we do that through small works, through chamber works, through writing songs about things that people care about. >> brown: some critics have asked: this is fine as community outreach, but is it really opera? bernhard's response: don't sweat the strict definitions. >> sometimes it doesn't look like an opera and sometimes opera can be defined as storytelling with words and music. that's how we like to define it. sometimes it's not about grand.

♪ >> brown: last year the company staged a work titled, "past the checkpoints," about an undocumented mexican youth living in texas. the company partnered with teens in an afterschool training program called "digital connectors" and got the young people, including 16-year-old pablo flor and san juana banda to come see and help market the production using their new skills. what was that like? >> i was worried that we didn't have the experience for doing this. >> brown: and what happened? >> we took it step by step and we were all communicating and i think we did a pretty good job. >> we were trying to target the youth. i know in opera, a lot of teenagers don't care about opera. it's not their thing. and i think it's important for them to know about opera. >> brown: if it's not their thing, how did you try to reach them? >> with social media. we created a facebook page.

we sent invitations about the opera. >> brown: the teens also enjoyed their first visit to an opera. >> people want to see their story being played in the opera. they want to say, "oh, i can related to that. that's what i went through." >> brown: and they thought it was important for anglo audiences to see as well. >> they don't know what a majority of people living in houston go through or have been going through. it shows a part of houston that is not really told that much. >> brown: 74-year-old yani rose keo knows that side of houston through hard-earned personal and professional experience and now she's seen her story told onstage. keo fled her native cambodia in 1975. several members of her family were killed by the khmer rouge. she eventually came to houston and started a non-profit organization that provides job training and social services to immigrants from all over the world. three years ago, she got a call from the houston grand opera. >> she said, "yani, i would like to talk to you about your life." i said, "are you sure? because our culture doesn't tell

the world." >> brown: in your culture, you don't want to tell the world your story? >> not to tell your own personal story to anyone. ♪ >> brown: eventually she decided to work with a writer and composer. and the result was "new arrivals." >> the first time i saw it, i cried and cried. i can close my eyes and i can see what my family went through. how hard they went throu. and even the anger i went through. i changed my anger into peace and love. >> brown: companies around the country are watching, aware of the need to engage and build new audiences. in the meantime, "cruzar", the mariachi opera has begun a life

beyond houston. it's been produced in chicago, san diego and even paris. and next year, the company will spotlight a different kind of local community, as it develops an opera based on the stories of iraq war veterans returning to houston. >> woodruff: online, watch an excerpt from the world's first mariachi opera and learn more about how the houston grand opera is engaging with residents. and again, the major developments of the day: officials in moore, oklahoma reported 12,000 to 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed in monday's tornado, and insurance losses topping $2 billion. and the obama administration acknowledged, for the first time, that u.s. drone strikes have killed four american citizens since 2009. >> ifill: online, the science behind the building of a tornado. hari sreenivasan has more. >> sreenivasan: what are the atmospheric conditions that lead

to the formation of tornadoes? and what were the factors that made monday's twister so huge? we have an explainer, in today's science wednesday report. and suicide rates in the u.s. rise and fall with the economy. what can the current trend tell us about our economic and mental health? economics correspondent paul solman discusses that topic on making sense. all that and more is on our website newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at, president obama's speech on the use of lethal drone strikes. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> more than two years ago, the people of b.p. made a commitment to the gulf. and everyday since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned so that we can all produce energy more safely.

b.p. is also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> rose: welco to the program. we begin with the legendary coach of the chicago bulls and l.a. lakers, phil jackson. his new memoir is called "eleve rings: the soul of success." >> basketball has-- i compare it a lot to jazz when i talk about it in those esoteric terms. you know, there's a lot of freelance stuff that's going on, but you're all kind of in thing rhythm it together over here, and you're anticipating what's going to go on, and you're ready to pick up the beat if things come your way, and you might have a little bit of a solo act, and, you know, it's a real combination of a group of people playing together in sync. and it has to be done in a way in which it's a very